5 Important Things To Remember After a Meal

It is fair to say that majority of people love food around the world. We like fast food, comfort food, desserts, and some people even love healthy food. Food is how we survive, but an overabundance of it is how our bodies slowly die. We all have heard the facts about how many calories come in, is essentially how many calories in turn have to come out to see any type of weight loss. If you don't burn the calories you have consumed, it will be stored as fat. If you burn more than you have ingested you will see a drop in the numbers on the scale.

I will tell you a few simple facts that will help you keep your weight in check to make sure those unwanted pounds do not creep in on you, and you can say “goodbye” to heartburn or indigestion.

Bellow you will find facts that scientists have found to be true, and the results may surprise many of you:

# 1 Fruit

How often do you find yourself thinking “I want something sweet now?” Most of the time, people think that choosing to eat fruit is a good alternative to a high calorie dessert. It has vitamins, is relatively low in sugar, it is natural, and it can help to digest food. How bad can it be? While these thoughts are all true, fruit is a great food by itself but not necessarily right after a meal. If fruit is eaten right after a big meal, it can actually disrupt the digestive processes in our body.

The focus from digesting the food that has just been eaten, has shifted to immediately digesting the fruit that came in last (different enzymes are used to digest fruit). As a result, the first food to reach our stomachs stays undigested and it will rot and ferment in the gut.

#2 Liquids

If you are like most people, you have a glass of water, a can of soda, or maybe a glass of milk next to the plate of food you eat. Doesn’t it feel great to wash down your food with a cold beverage? It does, but what we do not know is that this will disrupt the natural digestive process in the stomach by diluting the gastric juices. As a result, the process of digestion takes much longer and the quality decreases too. For the best uninterrupted process of digestion, doctors recommend that we drink water or any liquid of choice 30 -40 minutes before the meal.

#3 Rest and Sleep

Don’t you just love crashing on the couch or a comfy chair right after a delicious comforting meal? All I want to do is take a nice and quiet nap. Not so fast! Research has shown that laying down or going to sleep right after a meal can cause some serious digestive problems: heartburn, indigestion and upset stomach to name a few. During sleep, our system shuts off to rest, and so does the digestive system. To prevent the food rotting in your system make sure to eat your last meal at least 2 hours prior to your bedtime. It would be even better if you took a short 15 minute walk right after your meal or before going to bed.

#4 Smoking

We are all educated on how unhealthy smoking is in general, and the many health problems that come as a result of this habit. On top of this habit being bad overall, it is even more toxic to smoke right after a meal. I know many of you will say “Oh, but that is when it feels the most satisfying!” Let me tell you that smoking right after a meal is worse and more damaging to your body than smoking any other time of the day. Instead of digesting the food, our body's priority shifts to protecting the blood cells and ridding itself of toxins from the brain coming in from the smoke.

Doctors have spent many hours proving that smoking after a meal is the equivalent of smoking 10 cigarettes at once. Smoking right after a meal can increase the risk of bowel cancer.

#5 Bath, Shower or a Pool

When we enjoy a hot bath, shower, or simply want to do laps in the pool, our blood flow to the extremities and your stomach increases, and therefore it distracts your body from doing what it is meant to do first – digest the food.

Hold off going to the pool after a meal, or taking a shower as this can negatively affect the process in which your body digests food. This is due to the fact that during water treatment, blood flow is increased to the extremities causing the blood flow around your stomach region to be reduced. It turns out that when you dip into a body of water, it distracts the body from digesting food.

As you can see disrupting the natural process of digestion can be easily avoided if you can simply relax for about 20-30 minutes after a meal. Talk to your family members, read a book, or simply take a nice refreshing 15 minute walk. If you follow these simple rules, your stomach should work like a well oiled machine and heartburn or stomach pains will be soon forgotten.